Summary

Patricia starts having recurring nightmares about being trapped in a mansion from her childhood. She finally travels to St. Louis to visit the place she remembers and reminisces about moving there in mid 1990s. Her memories of living in St. Louis focus primarily on the youth group she attended at the time called "God's Gang" (265). Patricia wonders why she went to this group for so many years and the only answer she can come up with is that there she could sing "in all [her] imperfection" (267). Patricia remembers the guest speakers at the group who encouraged celibacy and her memory focuses on a fellow group member whose "father had gone to prison for sneaking into her bedroom at night" (271). Patricia also focuses on how so many of the people who lived in that area developed illnesses, likely due to the fact that "the...